Crazy feminist takes a look at the portrayal of women in media.

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Vision

After publishing a few posts, I decided to consolidate why I started this blog and what motivates me to write.

I primarily blog to help myself and others make sense of present-day cultural attitudes regarding women, and the role this plays in mainstream culture. While I support the welfare of women in all parts of the world, I mainly discuss my experiences in Western/American culture. Throughout most of my life, I did not think much about modern-day feminism, only knowing it as a political/suffragist movement that began in the 19th century. However, recently I have been noticing patterns in cultural phenomena that have always been prevalent in my personal life, only to culminate in a bad experience I had online about six months ago. A blog I started on blogspot became a hotspot for extremely rude comments that were sexist in nature. The blog was not even about feminism or politics, and I was confounded that some of my posts had been met by such controversy. I ended up deleting the blog, but before I did, I traced some of the commenters to their blogs. I discovered that these blogs were part of a wider community called Men’s Rights Activists (MRA). While the community title sounds like it stands for the welfare of men, all of the posts I looked at bashed feminists or women in general, and worked to infiltrate the comments sections of other female bloggers with hateful comments.

Now, I didn’t start this blog to directly wage an attack on these people. However, my discovery of this group of people on the Internet actually answered to what I consider the origin AND result of the following occurrences:

– overwhelming misogyny (as well as other forms of bigotry) in the comments of various sites – particularly blogs/vlogs authored by females (including those not covering controversial, political topics)
– negative stereotypes of women in Hollywood films and television shows
– people actually using these stereotypes to make disrespectful assumptions about me before getting to know me
– disrespectful comments I’ve heard made about women who, in my view, didn’t do anything to deserve them (such as being called a “bitch” for not reciprocating romantic/sexual interest)
– twisted dating “advice” for women cited in popular magazines and dating sites

Just to be clear, I am not an ivory tower feminist – I have never taken a women’s studies class – and this is not a political blog. I focus purely on the microsocial phenomena and attitudes that define my everyday experiences. Some of these experiences include my dating/sex life and my interaction with the media. It is these attitudes that find their way into politics and the media, so I might as well start at the bottom.

All of my opinions come from the point of view of an intersectionalist – someone who acknowledges that every individual is privileged and oppressed in different contexts.

I will also clarify that I don’t think gender problems only affect women and not men. However, being a woman, I write from a woman’s perspective (and even then, I can’t speak for all women.) While I may make observations about how cultural attitudes affect men, my understanding is limited to my personal experiences.

My blog is primarily targeted to like-minded women who would like to take part in these discussions, though of course, anyone else is welcome. I want to help other women feel comfortable with themselves and know that they are not alone in this crazy life journey (if they find any companionship in a random blogger.)